Google For Blondes

When I was home last weekend, my mother mentioned that she had "looked up" a lawyer I had mentioned in an earlier conversation.

Her exact words were, "I looked up that lawyer you were talking about."

I know that she can't use the internet herself, based on the number of phone calls I receive that begin with, "I need you to find something on the computer internet for me..." (Yes, she sometimes calls it "the computer internet." Or "the world wide web.")

Since she couldn't have meant the internet, I wasn't sure what she meant by "looked up." I thought it was kind of like when I sometimes see a "Closed" sign on a store that reads "Closed, Please Call Again," and I think, "I didn't call, I stopped by. And you were closed." But in the olden days, to call on someone meant to visit, so maybe "look up" had an old-fashioned meaning too.

So, I asked. "When you say you 'looked him up,' what do you mean by that?"

My mother answered quite simply, "I looked him up on google on the internet."

Whoa. We are now entering a whole new world. Google?!?

I decided to throw something new into the mix and see how she handled it.

"You know, mom, if you look someone up on google, you can just say you 'googled him.' You can use it as a verb, most people will know what it means."

She stopped to take this in for a minute. I could just see the wheels turning as she processed that little tidbit.

And, then, all of the sudden, she said, with a totally straight face, "Well, then... I yahoo-ed him too."

Heh, my mom is like this. I will never forget the three hours I spent teaching her how to use the mouse. I kept insisting that the she did not need to take notes on mouse useage. She did. Four pages. After that I persueded her to hire someone to teach her things. After the first session at 10 bucks an hour, she was amazed when his price rose to 15 bucks an hour for the next time she needed him. She's better now. : )

That's awesome. I almost fell over flat the first time my mom used "google" as a verb, especially since I still get fairly regular calls from her saying "I can't get it to print! How do I make it print?!"

Hi. No idea how I got here, but, this is a great post. My mom and dad used to ask me what the hell I was doing on the computer for hours and hours. "Going Blind," I said...but seriously. I was like a sponge when this here innerneck came out. If I saw a sign with a www on it, I had to go home and look it up!